Character Bios!

Hello Everybody!

So I've had a helpful suggestion to do a post about all the new people in my life so that everyone can keep up. I realise that I have been randomly mentioning people without really introducing them and this may have been confusing for you all.

First up, family.

From Left to right, first is Jae (for those of you who can't tell hehe), then me, followed by Oma (Korean for Mum), Jae's Mum, Jaehyun, Jae's Brother and lastly Apa (Korean for Dad), Jae's Dad.

Name: Jaehyun Jung

Relationship: Jae's older brother

About: Jaehyun works down south for a chemical company doing inventory management. Most weekends he comes up to see his wife Jieun (see below) and has been amazing with helping me out with the bits and pieces in korean that I can't do.

Name: Oma

Relationship: Jae's Mother

About: Oma runs the mushroom farm with Apa. Unfortunately, Oma doesn't speak much english and I don't speak much korean so we struggle to communicate sometimes. Between us there is a lot of hugs and giggling. Hopefully once my korean lessons begin on Monday, I will be able to solve that. 

Name: Apa 

Relationship: Jae's Father

About: Apa also runs the mushroom farm with Oma. I love seeing Apa because he's always so cheerful and genuinely delighted to see me every time. I can talk to Apa sometimes, but again as my korean gets better it will become easier.

Name: Jieun Hong

Relationship: Jaehyun's beautiful new wife

About: Jieun works as a legal secretary and lives in Bundang. Bundang is about 40minutes by bus away from me and is where I am taking korean lessons. She has been amazing is helping me out alongside Jaehyun and has been chief translator so far. I'm looking forward to our friendship growing while I am here and she is definitely beginning to feel like a sister.

New Friends!!!

Name: Fiona Southworth

Relationship: Awesome new friend

About: Fiona is canadian and arrived in korea a few days after me. She is currently working as an English teacher at a Hagwon (private school) as well. We have been exploring seoul together and enjoying friday night self-serve drinks!

On the left:

Name: Jess Rockwell

Relationship: Another new awesome friend from Canadia. 

About: Jess was the first person to offer to show me around Gwangju and introduced me to the self-serve bar. What a legend.

On the Right:

Name: Boram Kim

Relationship: Brand new friend as of last friday

About: Boram is awesome fun at the noraebang! She is with an irish guy who is also awesome. Lots of awesome all round here.

Name: Eric Seo (no photo...yet)

Relationship: FIrst non-family korean friend!

About: Eric is a dentist who got involved with 'The Other Gwangju' facebook group to improve his english. He is also an all round top guy with helping people develop their korean conversation skills and I'm very excited to get to know him more.

Work People:

Name: Cary Ann Vincent

Relationship: Head Foreign Teacher at Wonderland Hagwon

About: From South Carolina, Married with an adorable baby called Brooke. Cary Ann has been amazing with helping me get set up here in Gwangju and at school. 

Name: Mr and Mrs Han

Relationship: Owners and Directors of Wonderland

About: They are super lovely people who have put their heart and soul into Wonderland. 

Name: Hannah Teacher

Relationship: Korean Co-teacher

About: Lived in Australia where she learnt to speak english. Loves my accent which is awesome! She has a cute hybrid american/australian accent. Hannah Teacher has been incredibly helpful with getting orientated with the class. 

Thats everyone for now. I apologise if I have missed anyone out. I will introduce more people as they come into my journey.

Another blog post will be up later today or tomorrow for the last few days of my holiday.

Much Love!

Ally